Just 14 per cent of FP500 board directors are women: Report
Throughout her 22-year career at American Express, Beth Horowitz took on positions of increasing responsibility and eventually became president and CEO of Amex Bank of Canada. As part of that top role, she was chair of the bank’s board of directors from 2002 to 2007.
“I tried to focus on opportunities that would allow me to work with dynamic, talented new teams, learn new skills, drive results, gain visibility. I was naturally drawn to some intellectually challenging and higher-risk roles — the type of roles that had no road map for success — and I think that helped my career, helped me gain visibility,” she said.
The advice and support of three different mentors also helped her climb the corporate ranks and make it into the boardroom, said Horowitz.
When she left Amex, she had several offers for other board positions but she was looking for a large, multi-national organization with a strong brand, strong management and solid financials.
Horowitz eventually met with one board that fit her criteria.
“My skills fit pretty well with what they said they were looking for,” she said. But after the meeting, the search firm told Horowitz the CEO said she wouldn’t fit with the organization’s heavy industry clients.
“That feedback was delivered, I would say, almost apologetically since it was most likely a thinly veiled reference to gender bias,” she said.
Disappointed but undeterred, in 2009 Horowitz found the perfect fit at HSBC Bank Canada and was appointed to the board.
Unfortunately, women continue to make little progress when it comes to increasing their representation on the boards of Financial Post 500 companies, according to the 2009 Catalyst Census: Financial Post 500 Women Board Directors.
In 2009, just 14 per cent of directors were women, up from 13 per cent in 2007, the last time the census was conducted.
“It was very disappointing to see that women hold 14 per cent of FP500 board seats in Canada,” said Deborah Gillis, Toronto-based vice-president of North America at Catalyst, a New York-based research and advisory organization that promotes women in business.
“Most disappointing was the finding that almost 45 per cent of public companies in Canada have no women directors.”
Women’s representation in board leadership positions at public companies also continues to lag behind their overall representation as directors, found the study.
Despite making up 10.3 per cent of directors on public company boards, women make up just 9.4 per cent of nominating or corporate governance committee chairs, six per cent of HR or compensation chairs, 5.9 per cent of audit committee chairs and 3.2 per cent of board chairs.
However, there is some good news, said Gillis. The number of companies with no women on their boards decreased slightly from 43.2 to 41.9 per cent in 2009, while the number of boards with three or more women increased from 14 to 17.6 per cent.
Also, there was strong improvement in terms of representation of women on the boards of private companies, increasing to 16 per cent from 12 per cent in 2007.
“That’s an encouraging sign,” she said.
The arts, entertainment and recreation industry has the highest representation of women board directors (36.4 per cent), while the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction industry has the lowest (6.7 per cent).
One of the reasons for the low representation of women on boards of directors is, traditionally, nominating committees and recruiters have looked to the CEO and president pool to fill board seats, said Gillis.
“We know that’s where there are the fewest number of women and where networks are tightest,” she said. “You need to look to the broader corporate officer pool where there are many women who have the skills and competencies to contribute to board service.”
Taking a broader look will expand by 30 times the number of women who are qualified and ready for board service in Canada, said Gillis.
“The argument, ‘We’d like to have more women but we can’t find them,’ just simply doesn’t cut it in 2010. There are many talented and capable women with the experience to contribute substantive knowledge and expertise at the boardroom table,” she said.
Women can help themselves by raising their profile in a particular field so they become recognized as experts who can be assets on a board, said Gillis. They should also seek out champions and mentors, and become directors on non-profit boards to develop their experience and expand their networks, she said.
With research showing the connection between gender-diverse boards and increased shareholder returns, as well as the fact women account for a large portion of buying power, more organizations are going to be looking to women to fill board positions or risk losing out, said Horowitz.
“But the progress to date is pretty dismal,” she said.
